Different ways to study

You can study at many different educational institutions to acquire and develop your competence and vocational skills. There are many different ways to study these days, from contact teaching to distance and multiform learning. You can even complete a degree by independent study. Depending on your situation in life, you can study full-time, part-time alongside work, or while unemployed.

Your options may be more limited if you are in the integration process for immigrants, on sick leave, retired, or on parental leave, but some form of study is possible in any situation.

While planning your studies, try to answer the following questions:

• What kind of knowledge and skills do you want to obtain? Where can you learn them?
• How long are you willing to study?
• What are the requirements for admission?
• How will you finance your studies and support yourself in the meantime?
• What will your studies prepare you for? Will you need further training after completing your degree to achieve your goal?

You can find information on different degrees and professions and learn more about studying in different educational institutions on the StudyInfo website. In addition to exploring your options, you can also use the portal to apply to study programmes online.

Training guarantee under the Youth Guarantee

The Youth Guarantee in Finland includes a training guarantee, which means that every person completing basic education has the opportunity to attend further education in

• an upper secondary school or vocational institution,
• apprenticeship training,
• a youth workshop or rehabilitation, or
• some other form of study.

The guarantee also involves changes to the admissions process for vocational education and training. The joint selection procedure for general upper secondary schools and vocational institutions prioritises young people who have no prior degree and have not been admitted to study anything else after completing their basic education. This ensures that those applying to their first study programme are admitted.

Supplementary applications

If you are not admitted in the primary application round, you can take part in the supplementary application round. Vocational institutions also offer rolling admissions.

Interrupted studies

If you have previously started studies but not completed them, it is usually possible to pick up where you left off. However, if your right to study has expired, you have to reapply. It is possible to include your previously completed studies in your degree after your right to study has been restored. Contact your own educational institution to ask about the possibility of completing your interrupted studies.

Studying while working

If you are working, you can take multiform studies or ask your employer about the possibility of taking job alternation or study leave.

Multiform studies are designed to be taken alongside work, so contact teaching is reduced and mostly takes place in the evenings and on weekends. Multiform studies combine different forms of study, which may include contact teaching, online learning, working in study groups and independent study, for example. 

Job alternation leave is an arrangement where you and your employee agree upon a longer period of leave. You can use this leave to study, for example.

Policies on study leave vary from workplace to workplace, so you should discuss them with your own employer.